Martin Johnsson's blog

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”Made obvious by our use of contraceptives”

I recently reread part of The Selfish Gene. The introduction to the 30th anniversary edition is great fun. For one thing, Dawkins expresses doubts about the word ”selfish” in the title, and ponders whether he should have called it the Immortal or Cooperative gene instead. That feels very ironic, and I for one think that he made the right choice. It also contains this nugget:

Our brains have evolved to a point where we are capable of rebelling against our selfish genes. The fact that we can do so is made obvious by our use of contraceptives. The same principle can and should work on a larger scale.